Power Converter With Digital Sensorless Adaptive Voltage Positioning Control Scheme

A digital sensorless adaptive voltage positioning (SLAVP) control method is presented in this paper in order to realize AVP control without the need for load or inductor current sensing and high-resolution high-speed analog-to-digital converter sampling. The SLAVP control law utilizes the readily available error signal of the conventional voltage-mode closed-loop compensated controller or, in other words, the duty cycle of a dc-dc buck converter in order to realize AVP control. The elimination of the need for high-speed and accurate sensing and sampling of currents using the proposed SLAVP control reduces the size and cost of the digital controller, reduces the power losses associated with current sensing and sampling, and simplifies hardware design. Moreover, the SLAVP control can easily be added to controllers with conventional voltage-mode closed-loop control with minimum size and cost increase, and therefore, SLAVP control can be used for a wide range of applications and not only for high-end applications like powering microprocessors. The theoretical SLAVP control law derivation and analysis and SLAVP controller architecture are presented in this paper and verified by experimental results obtained from a proof-of-concept experimental prototype.